Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko heard out a report from Head of the Belarus President Property Management Directorate Yuri Nazarov on 2 February, BelTA has learned.

Aleksandr Lukashenko remarked that Yuri Nazarov has been working as the head of the directorate for the second year now. The executive had been assigned many tasks, which had been clarified and specified over time. “I have attentively studied results of the work of organizations. The only thing I can say is that we need to see problems behind these overall statistics. Because some organizations are not that successful and require serious attention,” the president said. The head of state stressed the rather good performance of the enterprises and organizations belonging to the Belarus President Property Management Directorate: “Financial results are good. Individual industries are doing well, too: agriculture, civil engineering, and Belkhudozhpromysly. Everyone used to believe that the Belarus President Property Management Directorate had snatched all the juicy pieces and had no problems as a result. No. Belkhudozhpromysly Concern alone was a lot of headache.”

Production of musical instruments

“But there are avenues I would like the Belarus President Property Management Directorate to develop such as musical instruments and the rest. Ours is a musical nation. An educated one from this point of view. Meanwhile, we mainly import [musical instruments]. We tried to recreate something in Borisov but it seems that that project went nowhere. It is certainly a matter of the state. Not only the Belarus President Property Management Directorate has to take care of it. As an experienced person you should also look at the state-run organizations, which should get involved and do their best, in particular, in order to develop this area. It is a complicated one but if the Belarus President Property Management Directorate doesn’t do it, then nobody will resolve this problem fast and will not turn around this industry. I am just giving an example,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

Ski production

The situation with the production of skis and other kinds of sport gear at the Telekhany enterprise is similar, the president added. “It is also necessary to improve work and attain higher standards. After all, we are a relatively northern country. We want kids to spend their time outdoors as you and I did back in the day. And outdoors is mostly about skiing these days. It is necessary to instill this knowledge, this experience in kids so that they would grow up to be healthy adults. We don’t want them to browse the Web on their phones all the time,” the president noted.

Operation of agricultural organizations

Another area that needs attention is the operation of agricultural enterprises. The head of state reminded that a decision had previously been made in favor of building new milk-processing facilities in Mogilev Oblast. “It is necessary to more actively use the storage facilities the Belarus President Property Management Directorate has. We’ve already talked about it using the agricultural enterprise Aleksandriyskoye as an example. A good storage facility has been built. They were totally empty last year or the year before last. It won’t do. They should be licked into shape and store things. Not potatoes but apples, other fruits and berries that can be sold at a profit,” the head of state gave instructions. “The market is huge. The Russian market and China want to buy more and more food. I hear they ask us to sell pork to them. Deliveries will be authorized. This is why there are plenty of markets today and they offer rather premium prices. We have to work on that and pour more efforts into it.”

Arts and crafts

Speaking about the performance of the Belkhudozhpromysly group, Yuri Nazarov noted that these enterprises are now growing, making unique products of folk artistic craftwork and souvenirs. “This year we’ve started making Sozh skan out of various sorts of timber and shavings. We get exceptional products. When I took over, we had two elderly people split wickerwork. Their products are outstanding. This is why we preserve this line of work and have increased the team up to seven people,” the head of the Belarus President Property Management Directorate said.